


Felines and Farm Boys

by silverlysilence



Series: A Hint of Smallville in Gotham [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Smallville
Genre: Clark is a sweetheart, Gen, Identity Issues, bad day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-02 22:57:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6586126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverlysilence/pseuds/silverlysilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Selina was not having a good day, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.  To top it off, Midnight was missing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Felines and Farm Boys

Selina Kyle was not having a good day.  First her usual hairdresser was out sick and no one had bothered to tell her of this small fact when she walked in for her appointment.  Then the new girl who had ended up cutting her hair had gone and butchered it.  The salon owner apologized profusely, personally taking the time to correct her employee’s mistake on the house, but to do that her hair had to be cut even shorter.  Now she wore a short bob cut, a style she hadn't sported since she was a preteen living on the streets.  

But that was only the first of many mishaps. Her car decided today would be the day to breakdown on the way to a meeting with a potential backer for her new big cat preserve. The tow truck hadn't got there until an hour later and by then the would-be-backer had backed out of the deal. 

After that fiasco, she had gone to the local museum as a pick-me-up to case the joint for one of Catwoman’s heists.  The famous Twin Cats' Eye Emeralds were on loan from LuthorCorp and they would fetch a nice little sum on the black market. A pretty penny which would more than make up for losing the backer's contribution.  Well, they were _supposed_ to be there.  

But the final straw?  The final straw had been when she finally gotten to her penthouse after the very long, horrible day to find the cleaning crew had left the window open and Midnight, her rare Egyptian Temple Cat, had escaped. Now she was reduced to combing the streets in search for her precious feline. 

Selina had already checked the usual places Midnight tended frequent when she prowled. The black cat was in none them though and the socialite was at a loss. As she continued to look for Midnight, a few of the transients gave her strange looks while the gang members eyed her as she wondered aimlessly through the streets, calling out for her lost cat. 

“Midnight, here kitty-kitty-kitty, here kitty-kitty-kitty.”

She had almost given up hope, resigning herself to turning in for the night after she spotted one of the gang members following her only to be scarred off when she slipped down an alleyway and into a rival gang’s territory. The streets of Gotham at night was not the place for the socialite Selina Kyle.

Catwoman on the other hand? Now that was a different story.

The cat burglar didn’t get a chance to slip out and into something more formfitting when the faint cries of a particular breed of feline reached her keen ears.

“Midnight?”

There was a beat of silence, filled only with the normal sounds of Gotham’s night life. Then, a faint pitiful cat yowl caught her ears. The familiar cries were a blessing that she followed to a bus stop and when she couldn’t find Midnight in the street light around the small bench area and shabby overhang, Selina – as all good cat owners were prone to do – looked up.

Looking down at her from about fifteen feet in the air were a pair of glowing yellow eyes. The darkness of the night along with the tree’s many leaves made it near impossible to see the black cat’s body in the shadows. However, as the headlights of a passing by car shined, Selina could see the Temple Cat was curled in to herself and leaning up against the tree with one paw delicately held close to her body.

“Oh Midnight,” the woman let out a small sigh at the sight of her cat. “What trouble have you gotten yourself into now?”

Hearing her name, the black feline let out a weaker yowl and tried to take a step downwards only to recoil with a hiss when she put weight on the paw she had been holding up. Understanding immediately dawned on Selina which quickly morphed to worry at how she was going to get the injured Midnight out of the tree. Catwoman would have no problem swinging up into the tree. Selina, on the other hand, had an image to keep and while there weren’t that many people around, there were enough to warranted a risk of exposure if she should start climbing a tree.

A clang of weak metal bending had Selina’s head whipping towards the bench and its overhang in time to see a young man leap from the top of the roof and grab onto the lowest hanging tree branch. At first, she didn’t understand what the dark haired stranger thought he was doing, but shrugged it off as normal Gothamite behavior. It was only when the young man reached the branch just below Midnight that Selina felt a spike of anger shoot through her followed by fear only to end in surprise when the brunet reached out and gently grabbed the Temple Cat.

Her surprise turned into amazement when Midnight allowed herself to be cradled to the man’s chest and didn’t once try to swipe at him with her claws or hiss. In fact, by the time the young man had awkwardly climbed his way down – jumping from the lowest branch to the ground and landing like a cat – the feline was purring.

“Safe and sound and back on the ground, just like I promised. Now let’s get you back to your owner. You’ve worried her sick,” the young man reassured the purring cat in his arm.

Midnight meowed back in response while the normally composed socialite was too busy blushing over the heavy Midwestern accent as he walked over to her. She had heard all kinds of accents due to her duel lifestyle, but never the soft, low key notes filled with sincerity.

Gotham was going to eat him alive.

“Here you go miss. Your cat doesn’t seem to be seriously hurt, just a slight sprained paw. She should be alright in a few days if you wrap it,” the stranger handed Midnight over with lopsided smile.

“Thank you. She had me scared when I couldn’t find her,” Selina found the words coming out of her mouth without her consent. “Turns out you were up to no good, weren’t you Midnight? What were you doing that resulted in a sprain, my precious?”

The stranger tilted his head up towards the tree and squinted. “Most likely, she was chasing a bird in the tree, miscalculated, and slipped and fell a few branches down. Midnight probably landed wrong which was how she sprained her paw.”

A delicate eyebrow rose as the cat burglar took in the brunet. “Oh and what makes you think that? Are you an expert, some kind of vet?”

The young man looked back at her with a slightly embarrassed expression and shook his head. “No, but I did grow up on a farm and we had plenty of barn cats to keep the mice out of the feed. I’ve seen my fair share of injured animals to know what’s broken and what’s just sprained.”

“A farm, huh?” which explained a lot. Gothamites didn’t help each other out or save stranded cats from trees without expecting something in return. Good old fashion farm boys though? They did just that.

Gotham was _definitely_ going to eat him alive.

“And what’s a farm boy doing out in Gotham this late at night?”

“Actually, heading back ho- to the farm for spring break. One of my friends thought it would be good for me to take a break from my studies and go somewhere. I’m waiting for my bus,” the dark haired man politely explained, nodding towards the bus stop.

“Ah,” the socialite acknowledged with a slight nod of her head before pretending to look at the time on her watch and making a slight sound of distress in the back of her throat. “Again, thank you for saving Midnight-”

“Clark.”

“Clark,” Selina smiled at the innocence of the boy. His willingness to give a perfect stranger his real name – because she had no doubt it was his real name – to someone he just met at night in Gotham’s shadier parts of town. He was just too cute for words.

“It was no trouble, anyone else would have done it too.” No they wouldn’t have, but Selina was about to shatter the poor farm boy’s illusion of the world and Gotham in particular.

“Well, Midnight and I best be off. I hope you don’t have to wait too much longer for your bus and do try to listen to that friend of yours and have a good spring break.”

“Thank you, and I hope you have a good evening as well miss.”

And if Catwoman stopped a bunch of lowlife thugs from crawling out of their alleyway to harass the young man standing under the street lamp waiting for his bus, well that was that. After all, any farm boy willing to save a feline in distress was okay in the cat burglar’s book.

**Author's Note:**

> Again. No idea where I'm going with this series, but glad you've stayed with me. The Selina is a mix from Batman: The Animated Series, Catwoman (okay, only her cat is from the movie, because let's face it, that wasn't a good movie), and a hint of Gotham.


End file.
